Code reviews are trapped in external platforms — disconnected from the code they're about. Context is lost, decisions are scattered, and nothing travels with the repository.
Once a review is done, there's often no record of who reviewed what, which commits were covered, or whether concerns were resolved. Auditability is an afterthought.
Most tools assume reviews happen on pull requests toward the trunk. In trunk-based development, code lands directly on the trunk — and there's no built-in way to review, persist, or audit those commits as a structured session.
Reviews belong where the code lives — in the repository.
Review data is stored directly in a .review folder inside your repository. No external platform required — reviews are version-controlled alongside the code they describe.
Because reviews live in the repo, they travel with branches, survive across clones, and stay consistent with the codebase. Review a batch of commits on the trunk or a branch — the review record goes with it.
Every review captures who reviewed which commits and when. No guessing, no digging through Slack threads — the audit trail is right there in the repository.
This is the direction. The current alpha stores review sessions on your machine; storing them in a .review folder inside the repository is the next step. Multi-user collaboration follows on the roadmap below.
From opening a repository to committing the review alongside the code — five steps to a review that travels with your repository.
Open a local Git repository and create a new review session in seconds.
Group multiple commits into a structured review session instead of isolated diffs.
Jump to any changed file and inspect its diff — additions, deletions, and modifications at a glance.
Add inline comments and track discussions directly on the code.
Review data lives in your repo. Commit it, push it, and your team opens the same session — no export needed. For teams not yet on Diffly, feedback can still be exported as Markdown, Jira, or custom formats.
Every capability serves one goal: reviews that live with the code in version control.
No PRs to review? No problem. Review a batch of commits together — the gap filler for trunk-based development.
Extracts ticket numbers from commits and fetches Jira tickets so reviews have the context they need. GitHub Issues and Linear coming soon, or on demand.
Every action needed for a code review is accessible from the keyboard — no context switching required.
Review progress is saved and restored — pick up your trunk review exactly where you left off, even after an interruption.
Until your whole team runs Diffly, export feedback as Markdown, Jira-formatted comments, or AI prompt templates — so review context still flows to the people and tools that need it.
Your code never leaves your machine. Customize the theme and code fonts to make it yours.
The steps toward the full vision — reviews that live with the code in version control.
Comments now carry a lifecycle — open, resolved, or approved — and can be assigned to a specific reviewer. This makes it clear who owns each piece of feedback and whether it's been formally approved, turning loose notes into a trackable approval workflow.
Multiple users can directly checkout the repository and see open or assigned reviews. Each reviewer picks up exactly where the last one left off, making collaborative review sessions seamless without leaving the tool.
Available for all major platforms. Review sessions that travel with your repository.
The fastest way to reach out is via GitHub Issues — open one for bug reports, feature requests, or any questions about Diffly.
Everything you might be wondering about Diffly.
My team works trunk-based — code gets reviewed after it's already pushed to master. I used IntelliJ's built-in diff viewer, but it doesn't support inline comments, so review notes ended up scattered across text files. Worse, when I got interrupted, I couldn't pick up where I left off. Diffly solves both problems. The core idea: reviews belong with the code in version control, not scattered across external tools.
The codebase isn't in a shape I'd be comfortable releasing publicly yet. I'm also not certain this project will ever go open source — it's still early days.
Yes, right now — it's free while in early alpha. Once the app matures, a paid plan for teams or voluntary donations could make sense, but that's a bridge to cross later.
Because Diffly isn't signed by Apple, macOS Gatekeeper will block the app on first launch.
After downloading the .dmg and dragging Diffly into Applications, do one of the following:
Right-click → Open
Right-click (or Control-click) the Diffly app in Finder and choose Open.
Confirm the additional prompt. macOS remembers this and won't ask again.
Privacy & Security
If double-clicking shows a "cannot be opened" dialog, open
System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom and click
Open Anyway.
Terminal (one-off)
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Diffly.app"